The Strokes Are Recording a New Album With Rick Rubin

Although they released an EP called Future Present Past last year, the Strokes haven't given us an album since 2013's Comedown Machine. However, that could be coming to an end. They're reportedly working on a new full-length, and have tapped Rick Rubin to produce.

The news comes from Albert Hammond, the father of Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr. “They’re making a new album now with a great producer called Rick Rubin,” he told the West Australian. “I speak to my son every day and he says that they’re so happy.”

Hammond is known as a solo act in his own right, having reached the Top Five in 1972 with "It Never Rains in Southern California." He's also penned or co-written numerous hits for others, including Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now," the Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe," Whitney Houston's "One Moment in Time" and Leo Sayer's "When I Need You." The royalties allowed him to finance his son's band's debut, Is This It.

“Nobody understood them, so I said, ‘Here’s the money, go in the studio and make the record’,” he continued. “I never got it back, but it doesn’t matter. I just love knowing I helped them out. I’m very proud of the band and of my son. They’re like all my children because I was there from the beginning.”

But he also drew on his own experience to give them some advice in the early days. “I used to go to their rehearsals and they were very loud. I used to say, ‘Guys, guys — mountains and valleys, highs and lows.'”